Bananas!

“Bananas are the world’s largest fruit crop and the fourth-largest product grown overall, after wheat, rice and corn.”

BHB, there, another thing that I love.

I eat two to three bananas a day. So does Ranjan. When we run out of stock, I go frantic if the hand cart vendor does not turn up and go hither and thither to stock up.

My father, currently in residence with us, used to have one banana every day as he has been having for decades. So, three banana lovers under one roof. All peaceful and happy.

Suddenly last week, some news item caught the eye of my father that said that some chemicals were being used to hasten the ripening of bananas for retail sale. He insisted on finding out more about it, and asked me to google for it. I duly did and found out that it is a perfectly legitimate thing to do and many agricultural extension scientists advise this course of action.

My father decided to find out from the horse’s mouth, or should I say the monkey’s mouth. He found out from the hand cart vendor that indeed they used some chemical to ripen the bananas. The chemical used is calcium carbide kept in a paper packet in the room where unripe bananas are stored. There is no direct application of the chemical on the bananas.

I tried to find out if such ripening is harmful to humans and so far have not been successful in finding any adverse reports on this score. My father however is convinced that this is yet another conspiracy to slowly poison human beings by the Chemical Industry. He has stopped his daily quota of bananas. Ranjan and I surreptitiously have our quota.

I am going bananas not knowing the answer. Anyone out there who can throw some light on this matter?